- Designer: McDonald’s Internal Creative Team & The Pokémon Company
- Category: Packaging Design — Food & Beverage
- Location: Not specified
- Project Brief: Create collectible packaging for McDonald’s Pokémon Happy Meal that brings the collaboration to life through character-themed boxes, miniature Pokémon-inspired toys, and exclusive trading cards.
Food and beverage tie-ins with kids’ franchises work best when the box itself becomes the collectible. McDonald’s and Pokémon reunite for Pokémon Happy Meal served in Pikachu, Umbreon, or Torchic boxes, with a mini box-shaped toy and two Pokémon TCG cards inside.
Each of the 15 toys shrinks the classic Happy Meal box and reshapes it into a Pokémon head. Ears and fins rise past the top edge, from Pikachu’s black-tipped points to Sobble’s yellow fin.
Faces sit flat on the front panel in bold black outlines and solid fills, close to the anime’s own line art. Each box takes one character color, such as sunny yellow for Pikachu or sky blue for Sobble, and the golden arch handles stay the same across the set.
Squared bases let each mini box stand on its own, so the 15 toys line up as a shelf display long after the meal is gone. Fifteen trading cards, seven of them foil, add a second set to collect alongside the toys.
